The Power Of Love

Revelation 1:4-8

Power. When you hear the word "power," what images come to mind? Do you think of the president sitting at his

desk in the Oval Office, signing bills into law? Or when you think of power, do you think of something like an aircraft carrier, loaded with more firepower that many whole countries have? Or does the word "power" cause you to think of the mushroom cloud that forms after a nuclear weapon is set off? Or when you think of power, do you think of a hurricane, with its torrential wind and rain? Power. What does that word mean to you?

On the whole, we human beings are fascinated with power. We love to see power and get close to it. Even more, we love it when we're in a position to take hold of power and to use it ourselves.

Several years ago, the United Nations appointed a human rights expert to investigate a particular country. Specifically he looked into the fact that while most every nation of the world has done away with the death penalty, this certain country executes more people each year than just about any other country on the face of the whole planet. What's more, this human rights expert looked into the fact that this particular country tends to execute people of a certain minority race with a much greater frequency than they execute people of the majority race.

Of course I'm talking about our own country, the United States. Or consider the treaty that just about every nation of the world signed to ban the use of landmines. About the only ones who refused to sign were communist North Korea, China, and the United States. Not exactly great company to be in. Through that treaty, the world community has spoken. The world doesn't want there to be any more land mines.

It seems that we have a tendency to want to pick up the sword and wield the power. We like doing that, as long as we're on the right end of the sword. The Bible says: "Judgment is mine, says the Lord. I will repay." Do we hear that? Judgment belongs to God. Paying people back, punishing people, is something for God to worry about doing, not us.

Often when there's some problem in our lives or in the world, our first reaction is to look for someone who has power to do something, to get back at those people who have wronged us. But here in our reading today from the book of Revelation, we are reminded that there is only one power that really matters, and that is God's power. A power, that we're told, that God uses to love us and to forgive us.

How different that is from what we normally think of when we think of power. Usually we think of power in terms of someone like Arnold Schwarzeneggar appearing on the scene, shooting a machine gun, lobbing hand grenades, and blowing away all of his enemies. But that's not the kind of power that Jesus showed us. Instead, Jesus gave his very life to show us what God's power is all about: that it's a power that's meant for love and for mercy.

In 1937 a pastor by the name of Martin Niemoeller was arrested by the Nazis in Germany and sent off to the Dachau concentration camp. Most of his time there, Niemoeller was kept confined in isolation. His only view of the outside world was a small slit in the wall, where he could see the gallows where many of the prisoners were put to death. But as time went by, Niemoeller realized that he wasn't really afraid of dying. Rather, he said that what he was most afraid of was that when they went to put the noose around his neck that he would say to his Nazi executioner: "There is a God in heaven, and he is going to get you." Niemoeller said: "If I had said that, how far my death would have been from that of the one that I call Lord."

What Jesus showed us, through his life and through his death, is that God is not the enemy of our enemies. God isn't even the enemy of God's enemies. Instead, more than anything else, God wants to show us that God loves us and that God forgives us.

Back in the 1950's in Louisiana, a little 6-year-old girl named Ruby Bridges was selected to be the first black child to integrate her local elementary school. Every day she had to be taken to class by federal marshals to ensure her safety, as she was led past crowds of angry, jeering, and spitting white people. The girl's teacher was told to keep a close eye on her to see if she could handle all that stress of what she was going through. Finally, one day the teacher called the little girl's doctor and said: "Come quick. She's starting to talk to herself." But when the doctor arrived, the little girl explained that she hadn't been talking to herself. She said that she had been praying. And so they asked what she was praying about. The girl said: "I was praying, `Father, forgive them, for they know not what they're doing.'"

Many times we think of using power as a way to get back at people, to hurt or destroy those people who are against us in some way. But here in today's reading from the Bible, we're reminded that that's not what God's power is all about. Instead, God's power is a power to love, a power to forgive, even when that seems to be an impossible thing to do.

C. Edward Bowen Crafton United Presbyterian Church Pittsburgh, PA